The rest of the inscription is so much broken that only a few words here and there can be read. They seem to refer to the king’s further projects,—how he will make ships to sail to and from the city, how he will build granaries, celebrate festivals, plant trees, and so on.
The reference to the year four is very interesting, and it would seem that it was at about that date that the king’s eyes were opened to the necessity of making war upon the priesthood of Amon. As we have seen, it was in about the fourth year of his reign that the great changes in the art took place, and the symbol of the sun’s rays was introduced into the sculptures. The mention of the two previous Pharaohs shows that troubles were already brewing then; but it had remained for the energetic young Akhnaton to bring matters to a head.
4. THE SECOND FOUNDATION INSCRIPTION.
The inscription recording these events was probably not written until some months after they had occurred. Just when the engravers had made an end of their work a second daughter was born to the king and queen, whom they named Meketaton; and orders were given that her figure should be added upon the boundary tablet beside that of her sister, which already appeared there with Akhnaton and Nefertiti. The king was somewhat distressed that a son had not been granted to him; for the thought was bitter that, in the event of his death, all his projects would fall to the ground. He therefore altered the wording of the inscriptions about to be written on the other boundary tablets; and, by including his oath in the text, he added an even greater integrity to the decree. The name of the second daughter was now inserted in this inscription, which reads:—
Year six, fourth month of the second season, thirteenth day.
On this day the King was in the City of the Horizon of Aton, in the parti-coloured tent made for his Majesty in the City of the Horizon, the name of which is “The Aton is well pleased.” And his Majesty ascended a great chariot of electrum, drawn by a span of horses, and [he appeared] like Aton when he rises from the horizon and fills the two lands with his love. And he started a goodly course to the City of the Horizon, on this the first occasion, ... to dedicate it as a monument to the Aton, even as his father Ra-Horakhti Aton had given command.... And he caused a great sacrifice to be offered.
And his Majesty went southward, and halted on his chariot before his father Ra-Horakhti Aton, at the [foot of the] south-east hills, and Aton shone upon him in life and length of days, invigorating his body every day.
Now this is the oath pronounced by the King:—
“As my father Ra-Horakhti Aton liveth, as my heart is happy in the Queen and her children—as to whom may it be granted that the Chief Wife of the King, Nefertiti, living for ever and ever, grow aged after a multitude of years, in the care of the Pharaoh, and may it be granted that the King’s daughter Merytaton and the King’s daughter Meketaton, her children, grow old in the care of the Chief Wife of the King, their mother....